Hi :) Barry has. Check his recent attachments to this list. I'm not suggesting ranting. Richard Stallman seems to get away with it but i probably wouldn't. Barry's approach seemed to be very effective. Make them feel the market pull. The market is changing. These shops will only realise that if increasingly they find that customers ask for compatibility with Gnu&Linux.
As the "age of the desktop" ends we see people use a plethora of mobile devices, from laptops to hand-helds and even down to watches which almost all entirely run on unix-based platforms. Mostly that is Gnu&Linux (such as Android, Blackberry, soon Ubuntu) but Apple's iThings (iPad, iPhone etc) are also strong in the market. Often devices are used in a combinations that co-operate with each other. MS is infamous for taking over rather than co-operating. Gnu&Linux tends to co-operate. There needs to be many different layers of approach. Richard Stallman is good for those that are into "Direct Action" such as ranting or finding the specific day that FSF organises for massed returns of desktops to demand refunds on unused Microsoft licenses. Direct action entrenches people though and pushes them into fighting back so we need other approaches. Class actions and legal routes have been used against MS before and MS often loses in such cases. The RTF case. The web-browser wars. Generally fighting MS in court seems to suck all the energy and drive of an organisation. Opera won against Internet Explorer in court but they don't reap the benefit. At least, not yet. The companies involved in the RTF case similarly vanished. They won pyrrhic victories. Court action needs to continue but so do other approaches. The professional approach of Mark Shuttleworth and they way Barry used are more likely to result in dialogue that opens the way for businesses to realise they need to support the new range of devices that almost exclusively don't use Windows. If they only support Windows in the future then a lot of those businesses will go bust. They need to know that. We need to let them know. Humour and professionalism go a long way. As you point out businesses might suffer if they offer options at the moment because MS will withdraw support from them. However there will be a tipping point where businesses find that they can do without the support because so many people have been demanding non-MS support. It's not the case the 1 approach is good and another bad or that 1 way leads to victory and another doesn't. All different ways going on at the same time does seem to be getting there. So, if you are in the UK then check out Barry's recent attachments. Modify and apply for yourself. Regards from Tom :) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu 4 dz, which is subscribed to the bug report. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1 Title: Microsoft has a majority market share Status in Club Distro: Confirmed Status in Computer Science Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in LibreOffice Productivity Suite: New Status in dylan.NET.Reflection: Invalid Status in dylan.NET: Invalid Status in EasyPeasy Overview: Invalid Status in Ichthux - Linux for Christians: Invalid Status in JAK LINUX: Invalid Status in LibreOffice: In Progress Status in The Linux Kernel: New Status in The Linux Mint Distribution: In Progress Status in The Linux OS Project: In Progress Status in The OpenOffice.org Suite: In Progress Status in Tabuntu: Invalid Status in A simple player to online TV streaming: Invalid Status in Tv-Player: Invalid Status in Ubuntu Malaysia LoCo Team Meta Project: In Progress Status in Ubuntu: In Progress Status in Arch Linux: Confirmed Status in Baltix GNU/Linux: Invalid Status in “linux” package in Debian: In Progress Status in Fluxbuntu: The Lightweight, Productive, Agile OS: Confirmed Status in openSUSE: In Progress Status in Tilix Linux: New Bug description: Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug which Ubuntu and other projects are meant to fix. As the philosophy of the Ubuntu Project states, "Our work is driven by a belief that software should be free and accessible to all." "Ubuntu software is free. Always was, always will be. Free software gives everyone the freedom to use it however they want and share with whoever they like. This freedom has huge benefits. At one end of the spectrum it enables the Ubuntu community to grow and share its collective experience and expertise to continually improve all things Ubuntu. At the other, we are able to give access to essential software for those who couldn’t otherwise afford it – an advantage that’s keenly felt by individuals and organisations all over the world." * http://www.ubuntu.com/project/about-ubuntu/our-philosophy Non-free software leaves users at the mercy of the software owner and concentrates control over the technology which powers our society into the hands of a few. Additionally, proprietary software stifles innovation, maintains artificial scarcities, and enables malicious anti-features such as DRM, surveillance, and other monopolistic practices. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry. Steps to repeat: 1. Visit a local PC store. 2. Attempt to buy a machine without any proprietary software. What happens: Almost always, a majority of PCs for sale have Microsoft Windows pre- installed. In the rare cases that they come with a GNU/Linux operating system or no operating system at all, the drivers and BIOS may be proprietary. What should happen: A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software. * http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html * http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines * http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/clubdistro/+bug/1/+subscriptions _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~algeriatul Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~algeriatul More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
